Last year I was in a H2H league, and by the end of the year, it basically came down to the team with the most 2-start pitchers would win the game. Every week all the teams would go out and pick up all of the 2-start pitchers they could find and activate them for the next week. The scoring system was wins 10 points, K 1 point, walk -.5 points, ER -1 point, hit -.5 points, IP 2 points, and saves 10 points (standard CBSSportsline league).

This year we are trying to find a way to eliminate all of the 2-start pitcher frenzy. One of the ideas on the table is to include -5 points for a loss, then knock the saves down to about 7 points to balance out the RP/SP ratio. Does this sound good? We just want to try to have a balanced league. I sure would appreciate any ideas you may have to help us out....

I'm in a similar league, and we dealt with the same issues last year. We decided to tread lightly instead of make major changes to the rules. We're going to tweak it slightly each year. We added -2 points for blown saves and losses. That way it's not extreme. -5 will have a major impact on scoring.

We also added +1 for hit by pitch to the offense. I hated that last year! What's the difference between HBP and Walk? We didn't add the -.5 for HBP to the pitchers, though. Some players didn't like penalizing pitchers for "owning that plate".

Personally, I love that saves have a high value. For me, anything that makes the waiver wire more interesting is a plus. If you gear everything towards rewarding only the absolute best players, things get boring.

The fun of fantasy is finding the sleepers. The high save value causes a constant closer churning in the waiver wire, with everyone looking for the next Gagne. I like that.